For 10 years, French designer Isabel Marant has had just one Los Angeles outpost on Melrose Place, which she opened to great fanfare with a starry party cohosted by Milla Jovovich.
But now, the designer and her very-L.A. boho aesthetic have branched out to a 2,200-square-foot store near the ocean in Palisades Village, the shopping center created by developer Rick Caruso with an increasingly luxury-skewing tenant mix, including Bottega Veneta and soon Saint Laurent.
Keeping with the village feel of the retail area, the Isabel Marant location has a bright yellow exterior with large bay windows making it resemble a stylish California beach house.
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The interior design draws inspiration from the 1970s French experimental movement. The boutique showcases a variety of furniture pieces, including an exclusive cash desk designed by Netherlands-based design studio Odd Matter, a foam couch made by Touche-Touche artists and display podiums created by Rotterdam designer Jonas Lutz.
The two-story venue carries the brand’s men’s and women’s main line collections, accessories as well as the diffusion line Isabel Marant Étoile.
Recently, the luxury label has been expanding its retail footprint around the world. Last month, Isabel Marant unveiled her biggest store yet at 677 Madison Avenue.
She also opened her first store in East Hampton, New York. The 904-square-foot boutique carries the women’s main line merchandise and the Isabel Marant Étoile collection. It has a variety of furniture pieces, including a jewelry and sunglasses display and wooden podiums by designer Lutz, concrete and ceramic planters by Parisian artist Kalou Dubus as well as ceramic glazed podiums developed by the Spanish studio Apparatu.
The 56-year-old designer is in Tokyo for the opening of her new store there, which also has a bright yellow exterior. But rather than a more traditional look, the location has a striking, large-scale artwork facade, drawing inspiration from Japanese artist Yutaka Sone’s “Power of Ten” and “Obsidian” — two series that involve an intense study of obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava cools rapidly.
Spanning more than 2,152 square feet, the architecture inside the Tokyo unit conveys a passion for art and craftsmanship. Marant played with the space, cutting out patches from the ceiling — as if they were dress patterns.
The French clothing company, founded in 1994, now has more than 80 stores worldwide.
As reported, the company is not looking for new investors right now because the climate is not right, but Anouck Duranteau-Loeper, deputy chief executive officer, said they might when the market is quieter and more stable. According to WWD sources, JP Morgan has been tasked with selling Montefiore Investment’s 51 percent stake in the brand, which it bought in 2015.
Duranteau-Loeper noted that the U.S. is a big focus for the company, representing more than 20 percent of the overall business, as well as Asia. Its largest market is Europe.